Aloha from LOS ANGELES!!!
Superforester Jon recently turned me on to a book that I started reading today called The Aquarian Conspiracy, by Marilyn Ferguson.
And the first thing that I feel like doing is what Jon did for me by reminding me of the origins of the word Conspiracy.
From the Latin roots, Con: meaning “with” and Spiro: meaning “I breathe” we get the word Conspire: meaning “I breathe with…”
From there “To Conspire” is easily translatable as “To Breathe Together”. Thus the word Conspiracy in this new light conjures the very positive and simple imagery of all of the participants operating as a single unit… Highly inspirational imagery when we think about how much we all want people to be actively United on this amazing planet.
This book was ahead of its time when it was first published in 1980, predicting many of the social transformations that are taking place today, and it seems as important as ever for us to now get deeply involved with the personal and internal transformations that this book recommends.
Here’s an excerpt from the introduction, entitled “The Movement That Has No Name”:
“Something remarkable is underway. It is moving with almost dizzying speed, but it has no name and eludes description…
The spirit of our age is fraught with paradox. It is at the same time pragmatic and transcendental. It values both enlightenment and mystery… power and humility… interdependence and individuality. It is simultaneously political and apolitical. Its movers and shakers include individuals who are impeccably Establishment allied with one-time sign-carrying radicals.
Within recent history “it” has infected medicine, education, social science, hard science, even government with its implications. It is characterized by fluid organizations reluctant to create hierarchical structures, averse to dogma. It operates on the principle that change can only be facilitated, not decreed. It is short on manifestos. It seems to speak to something very old. And perhaps, by integrating magic and science, art and technology, it will succeed where all the king’s horses and all the king’s men have failed.”
The idea of an internal change causing societal change is the same philosophy of the other book Jon recently recommended to us called Manual for the Peacemaker: An Iroquois Legend to Heal Self and Society, by Jean Houston…
The Manual for the Peacemaker is a group style workshop book that we will be beginning the first week of January, 2011. Please feel free to reach out in the comments of this post if you think you might be interesting in committing to the 8 week long arc of that journey. We will be conducting the group sessions via e mail and a splendid time is guaranteed for all…
Much Aloha,
jrc
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